It is well known in the art to synthesize aluminoxane compositions, which have utility as co-catalyst components, utilizing at least one trialkylaluminum compound as a reagent. It is further well known to synthesize these aluminoxane compositions by reacting the trialkylaluminum reagent(s) with a water source. More recently, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,831,109 or in U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,143 (which are incorporated herein in their entirety for their disclosures), methods using a compound containing a carbon-oxygen bond, such as carbon dioxide, to form a precursor composition that can be converted to the desired aluminoxane product have been disclosed. It is obvious to a person skilled in the art that these methods could also be combined. For instance, a precursor formed using a carbon-oxygen bond containing reagent could be partially hydrolyzed, and then finally converted to an aluminoxane composition. Alternatively, hydrolysis could be conducted prior to reaction with a carbon-oxygen bond containing reagent.
It is also known in the art to synthesize aluminoxane compositions, which have utility as co-catalyst components, by utilizing at least one trialkylaluminum compound as a reagent which is treated with a reagent containing a carbon-oxygen double bond, such as carbon dioxide, and water, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,728,855 (incorporated herein in its entirety for its disclosures).
In the foregoing preparative schemes, the aluminum in the aluminoxane is substantially derived from the trialkylaluminum compound, which is commonly trimethylaluminum. This trialkylaluminum reagent is generally the most expensive component in the reagent system. If all or a portion of the trialkylaluminum compound could be replaced as the source for the aluminum in the final product, the manufacturing process could be made correspondingly less expensive.